Tag Archives: forgotten liberal heroes

RIP Pratap Chitnis

By The Voice | Mon 15th July 2013 - 8:47 am

In memory of Pratap Chitnis, we reproduce below Mark Pack’s tribute to an unjustly forgotten Liberal Hero. The Guardian’s obituary is here.

Pratap (later Lord) Chitnis was the post-war Liberal Party’s first grassroots campaigning mastermind, whose pioneering activities laid the groundwork for the later work of better known people such as Trevor Jones and Chris Rennard.

Born in 1936 to a family with a history of Liberal politics (his grandfather stood and lost in 1906), he was inspired by Jo Grimond to join the Liberal Party himself in 1958. Chitnis first worked in the National Liberal Club’s library and then …

Posted in News | Also tagged chris rennard, eric lubbock, history, jo grimond, pratap chitnis and trevor jones | 4 Comments

Forgotten Liberal heroes: Richard Lillicrap

By Dan Falchikov | Wed 8th June 2011 - 4:23 pm

Richard Lillicrap was probably too little known in Lib Dem circles in the first place to be forgotten, but for hundreds (if not thousands) of committed football fans who are closely involved in running supporters’ trusts or indeed football clubs themselves – like AFC Wimbledon – he was an inspiration.

Richard was a key player in the supporters’ movement, helping dozens of football (and other sports) supporters to organise themselves and take action in their communities to protect their teams from avaricious and uninterested owners.

Richard was also a committed Liberal and saw fan and community ownership of football as the obvious expression of liberalism and community politics in the sporting sphere. He was also a Liberal Democrat councillor for Canbury Ward in Kingston from 1994-98 and a key part of the first ever majority Lib Dem administration that devolved its decisions to seven neighbourhood committees – even thought it meant giving up control in four of these to opposition parties.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged football, history and richard lillicrap | 1 Comment

Forgotten Liberal heroes: Desmond Banks

By Mark Pack | Mon 16th May 2011 - 10:25 am

Listen to Liberal Democrats make speeches and there are frequent references to historical figures, but drawn from a small cast. Just the quartet of John Stuart Mill, William Gladstone, David Lloyd George, David Penhaligon corner almost all of the market, especially since Bob Maclennan stopped making speeches to party conference. Some of the forgotten figures deserve their obscurity but others do not. Charles James Fox’s defence of civil liberties against a dominating government during wartime or Earl Grey’s leading of the party back into power and major constitutional reform are good examples of mostly forgotten figures who could …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged history, jo grimond, lord desmond banks and radical reform group | 3 Comments

Forgotten Liberal heroes: Earl Grey

By Mark Pack | Fri 29th April 2011 - 9:24 am

Nick Robinson has returned to the radio for a second series of his short portraits of British Prime Ministers and in the list this time is Earl (Charles) Grey, one of the figures I’ve previously highlighted as a forgotten Liberal hero.

Robinson’s piece is history as light entertainment – so it starts off with the connection between Grey and the tea that we now know as Earl Grey and then moves on to his high profile affair before getting stuck into the more serious aspects of his record. But as a quick canter through his life in a style that …